This Bill proposes technical amendments to deal with the publication of short-form notices of the making of an instrument under a law.

Those members of the Assembly in 1994 will recall that the former Government brought forward two amendments to the Subordinate Laws Act 1989 to permit short-form notices of the making of instruments to be published in the Gazette. However, this appears to be one of those areas where it is sometimes easier to describe the result you want than to actually achieve it.

Prior to 1994 instruments were required to be printed in full in the ACT Gazette. To bring this process into line with practice in relation to Acts and Regulations (which were purchased on demand rather than churned out through an automatic gazette process to people who had no use for them), the Subordinate Laws Act 1989 was amended. The amendments, sensibly, gave notice of the making of the instrument and where they could be purchased.

It was clearly the intention of the Assembly in 1994 that amendments to the Subordinate Laws Act 1989 were to permit short-form notice in the Gazette of instruments made under ACT law.

The problem that has arisen is simply this. The 1994 amendments were designed to operate on a broad class of instruments. However, it might be argued the amendments presuppose that an instrument will have some form of legal status before the time it is gazetted. This may not be the case.

Accordingly, this bill remedies the problem by describing the process of making instruments and publishing a notice about them in plain